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Monday, December 30, 2013

The Dark Side of Christmas (Matthew 2:13-23)

Paul Harvey used to have a popular
radio show in which he would tell “the rest of the story.”This morning I would like to tell you the
rest of the story about Christmas . . . the part of the story no one really likes
telling or hearing.It is a story that
begins long before that first Christmas . . . it is a story that begins with
Jacob and his wives.

If you remember Jacob and how he fell in love with Rachel . . . how he
agreed to work for seven years for the privilege of having her hand in marriage
from her father and was tricked into marrying her older sister, Leah, and then
working another seven years to finally marry Rachel.Rachel was the love of his life, but she had
a difficult time conceiving, while on the other hand, all of his other wives
had no trouble.Eventually she gave
birth to two sons—Joseph and Benjamin . . . dying during his birth—according to
Jewish tradition she was 36 years old at the time of her death.Of the four wives, she is the only one not
buried burial cave of the family . . . instead she was buried on the way to
Bethlehem.

According to the Jewish legend, Rachel was not buried in the cave
because Jacob had prophetically foresaw that the Jews would pass by her burial
place as they were being exiled to Babylon.As the legend continues its story, as the captives passed by, Rachel
would tearfully plead to God on their behalf: “Will you cause my children to be
exiled on this account?”The prophet
Jeremiah, who foretold this terrible saga in the history of the Jewish people .
. . who foretold the destruction of the Temple and the eventual exile to
Babylon, might have alluded to this legend when he prophesied: “A
voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her
children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”

In the Old Testament whenever God made a covenant between an individual
and God’s self, God would mark the covenant with a name change for the
individual.Thus God fulfilled the
promise of a great nation to both Abraham and Jacob through the sons of
Jacob.Remember what name God gave to
Jacob?Israel.For those of you who enjoy biblical genealogy,
Jacob had twelve sons . .. of which two of them were Joseph and Benjamin . . .
these sons become the patriarchs of the twelve tribes of Israel . . . they are
a homeless people, refugees in a strange land, when God calls them out of exile
in Egypt to claim their own land . . . which they eventually do and the land is
named Israel.All this taking place long
after the death of Rachel, but the thread is woven through the story . . .
generations later, she would weep for her children . . . the children of Israel
. . . as they are hauled off to captivity in Babylon.

Which brings us to that reference once again in the Christmas
story.A part of the Christmas story
that we did not hear on Christmas Eve was the part about the Magi . . . or what
we commonly call the story of the three wise men or three kings.These were those foreigners who had stopped
by the palace of Herod to inquire about the birth of the new king of the
Jews.Surprised by their inquiry, Herod
is a little perplexed because he was the king of the Jews . . . in his mind he
is wondering if this was the signal that he reign as the king was soon to be
over . . . but, nonetheless, he helped the Magi . . . gave them directions . .
. and then, explicitly told them to come back, tell him where this newborn king
was, and then he would go and pay homage to the child.What we all know is that Herod had no plans to
pay homage to the newborn king . . . he planned on killing his competition.

As the story goes, the Magi were informed by heavenly messengers not to
go back and tell Herod anything.Joseph
was also told by heavenly messengers that he was to take his little family and
hightail it to Egypt . . . Herod was going to kill the child.And, everyone does as they are told.The Magi head back to their own homelands,
they avoid going back to see Herod . . . Joseph takes his family to Egypt . . .
and, well Herod, is a little peeved when he learns that no one did what he told
them to do.Angry he figures the only
way to solve the problem is to kill all the male children, two years and
younger, in Bethlehem and its vicinity . . . to massacre the children.

The writer of Matthew’s Gospel then proclaims that the prophecy of
Jeremiah was fulfilled: “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and
great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted,
because they are no more.”

Light casts shadows, and the light of God’s gracious gift of Christmas
casts shadows upon the story as we know it.It is in the shadows that the darkness lurks . . . it is in the darkness
that bad things seem to happen . . . and, so it is with the Christmas
story.As we are reveling in the great
joy of the Christmas story . . . the birth of a Savior, there are plots being
conceived to kill the child . . . families are exiled to foreign lands . . .
children are massacred . . . and, even when the threat is gone, fear still
clings to the situation making the young family return—not to their homeland of
Bethlehem, but instead to another district . . . the district of Galilee where
they make their new home in the town of Nazareth.

The truth about the rest of the story about Christmas is that it has a
dark side . . . a dark side that we usually ignore or hurriedly skip over.That seems to be a part of human nature . . .
we do not gather to hear stories of death and suffering . . . no, we gather to
hear the good stuff . . . the nice stuff.But, remember, light casts shadow . . . even the light that breaks forth
for all the world to see in the story of Christmas.Life nor faith is as easy as it is often
portrayed . . . it is not all black and white . . . there are always areas of
gray as we journey the spectrum of life and faith.Innocents die . . . people are exiled . . .
plots are sprung . . . and, there is lamenting for the children.

No one wants to throw cold water on the celebration of Christmas, but we
would do well to heed the words of the past as they are shared in our reading
this morning . . . the past of that first Christmas . . . the past of God’s
story in the history of faith.There is
a dark side that must be considered, and maybe, just maybe, this is the gospel
writer’s way of forewarning us and future readers that the joy of the Christmas
story is shadowed by hard times yet to come.The cross is still to come . . .

. . . and there is hope.There is
hope despite the darkness of the story.With perfect 20/20 vision we know how the story ends . . . we know of
the triumph over the cross . . . we know of the fulfilled promises . . . and,
we have hope.Life and faith are adventures
in which we never quite know exactly how we will get to the destination, but we
know what and where that destination is.We need to acknowledge that there will be days in which we will walk in
the sunshine, and days when the gray clouds block out the light and darkness
seems to be our constant companion.Yet,
there is hope . . . hope because we know the promise . . . we know the gift . .
. we are not alone.Immanuel . . . God
with us!God is with us, even as we
pause in the darkness of the Christmas story . . . even as we encounter the
darkness of life and faith . . . God is with us!Amen!